Chapter 32
The Weight of Names
Harrow patrols the perimeter between the two springs before dawn. Aldren wakes to the baby's telepathic voice telling him not to wake the mothers, that she's hungry but not urgently. The baby directs Aldren to place her on Kayline's breast to nurse, explaining that tomorrow is her name day and today belongs to the birth mother — Mireth — who needs a day of walking, talking, and bathing with Aldren while the baby stays with Mother Milk, as Kayline has produced abundant milk. The baby tells Aldren she loves him while nursing. Aldren then wakes Mireth and tells her he'll explain on the walk. He leaves the baby sleeping against Kayline's chest and takes Mireth into the forest toward the new spring. Along the way, they discuss Mireth's fear about being separated from the baby, the baby's nature, and what it means that the child has chosen a name day. At the new spring, they bathe together in the mineral waters, and Mireth confronts the grief of her drowned sister Maren, whose unlived years she carries. Aldren holds her through it. The baby communicates contentment throughout. On the return path, Mireth asks Aldren what he thinks the name will be. He doesn't know. The house welcomes them back. Kayline is awake, sitting in her chair with the baby, both looking rested and full.
Harrow moved through the dark like a rumor.
Not the kind of rumor that starts in taverns — those are loud, clumsy things, born from too much ale and not enough context. No. Harrow moved like the kind of rumor that passes between trees: unspoken, felt in the gut, confirmed by the prickle of hair along the spine. He was three years old in body and considerably older in the particular wisdom that comes from spending your entire life guarding something you cannot explain to anyone who isn't also guarding it, and at half past four in the morning, with the black moon finally waning toward a sliver of silver that wouldn't qualify as moonlight by any reasonable standard, he was doing what he did best.
He was walking.
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